Duanmu Yan

The next morning, a guard came and led the kids to the main location of the exam.

Although sleeping on the floor with a mattress wasn't as comfortable as sleeping on a bed, Zhan Shenwei still felt refreshed.

After all compared to the rest, they probably had the best sleep.

The kids all gathered in a large hall, in front of the was a large podium with few people sited.

Apart from the burly imposing man " Li Zhenchuan" wearing an armour who Zhan Shenwei knew from the mumurs around was the city lord of the Bright jade city, he didn't who the rest were, but based on their attire and the way a few disciples stood at their backs, he guessed they were elders of the Mystic Heaven Sect.

After having spent some time in the Bright jade city, he knew there were five peaks in the Mystic Heaven Sect.

Each peak had it's own lineage and legacies and was different from the other.

The Mystic Heaven Peak the main Peak which belonged to the Sect leader , the Sword heart Peak , the Crimson furnace Peak, the Verdant lotus Peak and the Soaring Cloud Peak but looking at the podium apart from the Li Zhenchuan he could only see four elders.

Lu Zhenchuan walked up to the podium and said loudly, " There are four stages in the disciple recruitment test and your score in these stages would determine if you would become disciples and the peak you would be accepted into ".

Looking at the excited youths in front, Li Zhenchuan sneered within, who knew how many of these would leave the gates unable to enter the Mystic heaven sect.

" We shall begin with the first stage, some guards would go around with some spirit stones, within the time of an incense stick absorb as much qi as you can".

The youths sat cross-legged as the guards passed round to give them the spirit stones.

Zhan Shenwei looked at the spirit stone in his hand, unlike normal spirit stones the one the guards gave them had a rune inscribed on them.

Although Lu Zhenchuan didn't explain the explain the purpose of the first stage, any one that was a bit knowledgeable would know it was to test their innate aptitude for qi.

Given the same period of time, those with better innate aptitude could absorb more spirit qi.

After the guards had passed round the spirit stones, Lu Zhenchuan waved his hand, " begin !", as a maid lit an incense beside him.

Immediately the youths rushed as they revolved their Cultivation techniques to the peak in order to absorb as much qi as possible from the spirit stone.

The incense had just started burning for a few minutes when a young youth stood and walked towards the podium, he was dressed shabbily tattered clothes, yet his eyes were bright.

His steps were slow and steady as he walked forward and although he had an ordinary looking face he attracted the attention of everyone in the hall and some of the youths even paused to watch him.

He held the spirit stone in his hands and the formerly bright spirit stone started to dim visibly and before reaching Lu Zhenchuan the spirit stone had lost it's glow completely as if void of any spirit qi.

" What is your name?", Lu Zhenchuan asked as he looked at the youth in front of him in astonishment, they had just lit the incense and someone was already done.

" Duanmu Yan ", the youth answered as he stood in front, his gaze calm like he had done nothing.

Lu Zhenchuan nodded as he collected the spirit stone from him.

Bringing out a mirror like artifact, Lu Zhenchuan froze as he put it on top of the spirit stone.

The rune on the spirit stone had two uses, one was check if any contestant was cheating, the other was to detect the fluctuations and grade of the Cultivation techniques being used by the youths.

Even within the same level innate aptitude those with better Cultivation techniques could absorb more qi than their peers.

The Mystic Heaven Sect didn't say anything about those using powerful cultivation technique after all one's opportunity also mattered.

Although the spirit rune couldn't accurately measure the grade of cultivation techniques, it could measure to some degree, with this measurement the Mystic Heaven Sect could infer the level of the raw talent of the participants.

Looking at the mirror, Lu Zhenchuan could see that Duanmu Yan had used the basic qi condensation technique to absorb the qi in the spirit stone.

Cultivating with the basic qi condensation technique was extremely slow compared to better techniques and this Duanmu Yan was still faster than those using higher leveled cultivation techniques.

This terrifying speed of absorption, wasn't it the innate spirit body.

The innate spirit body was a type of constitution that had an extremely high compatibility to spirit qi, for those with these type of constitution although there was no other effect their ability to control spirit qi and their cultivation speed was top notch, they were simply geniuses.

This Duanmu Yan, if he really had the innate spirit body then even without going through the remaining stages of the test could become an inner disciple of the Mystic Heaven Sect.

And because of the neutral form of the innate spirit body constitution, he was suitable for any peak.

After all in terms of just compatibility to spirit qi, hardly was there any physique or constitution that could match the innate spirit body.

Calming himself not to let any signs out, he inscribed something on Duanmu Yan's token and handed it back to him.

After Duanmu Yan, there were still others that showed terrifying results, although they were not as exaggerated as Duanmu Yan Lu Zhenchuan still noted them.

This didn't mean the innate spirit body was the best there was, unlike the innate spirit body being only centered on spirit qi, other constitutions or rare forms of talent had other powerful abilities and uses.

Xia Yunzi was also among those that finished first right after Duanmu Yan and Zhan Shenwei was not surprised.

In terms of talent, Xia Yunzi was top notch and although he didn't know the details of her constitution he knew she had one and she also cultivated the same cultivation technique as Xia Tianming, with all these factors it wasn't surprising she finished early.

One by one the youths finished early as Lu Zhenchuan inscribed on their tokens and they all stood and waited, out of boredom some checked their tokens in curiosity but couldn't understand the inscription on it.

Zhan Shenwei was cross-legged as he revolved the basic qi condensation technique to the limit he could, in order to absorb the qi in the spirit stone, around there were only a few people left.

When the incense stick was completely burnt out Lu Zhenchuan waved his hand and stopped the rest.

Zhan Shenwei looked at the spirit stone in his hand, it was still bright, although he wasn't the only one that hadn't finished absorbing the spirit qi in the stone before time ran out, the spirit stone with most of the others wasn't this bright.

One by one the rest walked towards Lu Zhenchuan and he inscribed on their tokens.

Although he didn't know what it was Lu Zhenchuan inscribed, Zhan Shenwei didn't think it was good.

They had been last!

After the first stage, one of the elders of the Mystic Heaven Sect took over from Lu Zhenchuan.

He had a Crimson furnace symbol on his chest and gave a bit of fiery aura.

In the Mystic Heaven Sect, disciples wore the Sect uniform and their peak symbol on the left sleeve, only elders had theirs in front.

The Crimson furnace peak elder didn't even bother to say anything as he waved his sleeves.

A scroll flew from his left sleeve before increasing in size and unfurling in the air while a white crystal orb with dense spirit markings flew his right before floating in front of the podium.

The elder waved his hand as a disciple brought a chair for him, seating on the chair he said to the kids, " One by one walk up to the crystal and place your hands on it", when he was done he closed his eyes as he lay on the chair.

Unlike Lu Zhenchuan, this elder did his work a bit lazily, it was a disciple beside him that held a rune pen this time around, to inscribe on the kids token.

Zhan Shenwei watched as the first person walked towards the stone and placed his palm on it.

Immediately a cyan light shone on the orb as words appeared on the scroll, " Middle grade wind spirit root".

The disciple beside the Crimson furnace elder collected the guys token and inscribed on it before giving him back.

One by one the kids took turns to check their spirit roots as the crystal orb detected the spirit root of the participants while the scroll displayed the result.

The spirit root wasn't really a tangible root in the body of cultivators but the foundation or basis upon which they cultivated and the knowledge of spirit roots was very important to cultivators.

Everyone showed certain inclination to certain elemental attributes or factors, for cultivators cultivating according to their attributes was very important, for example those with fire attributes would have better results cultivating fire attributed cultivation techniques than other cultivation techniques.

Cultivating techniques of other attributes apart from the one cultivators were inclined to could lead to slow cultivation speed or even qi deviation due to confliction between their spirit root and the qi in their innate sea.

As a Primordial God Zhan Shenwei knew his attribute was his primal law and the primal law of every Primordial God was unique to the Primordial God.

Zhan Shenwei was the Primordial Chaos God and hence his primal law was Chaos.

Chaos due to the five different elemental lightning essence in his body mutually restraining each other.

But the method of cultivation of Primordial Gods was entirely different of that of spirit qi.

For spirit qi cultivators, their spirit root and qi attribute meant compatibility to a certain form of qi.

But Primordial Gods were different, Primordial Gods devoured the qi of heaven and earth and produced their own qi unique to their primal law.

His Primal law was Chaos and the five elemental lightning essence in his body were the source of that chaos.

Zhan Shenwei didn't know the level of his compatibility with lightning or the five elements but he knew it didn't matter as a Primordial God.

Elemental lightning essence permeated every part of his Physique not because he was compatible with lightning or the five elements but because it was subject to him.

So in a way qi attributes or roots was different from Primal laws.

The Crimson furnace peak elder didn't bother coordinating the second stage so the kids went towards the crystal orb randomly.

Duanmu Yan the kid that passed the first stage first had a high grade fire spirit root, although it wasn't the most impressive in the second stage it was better than most.

So far the most impressive display in the second round was a by a boy called Qin lei and a girl called Li Xiaqing.

The boy Qin lei was very impressive garnering the attention of the Bright Jade City lord and the elders, he had dual top grade lightening and metal spirit root while Li Xiaqing had top grade wind spirit root, there were only a few with high grade spirit roots while the rest were middle grade and below.

Top grade spirit roots were extremely rare.

After a while Zhan Shenwei and Xia Yunzi moved towards the front, Zhan Shenwei was also not confident about this stage but there was no use stalling for time.

Xia Yunzi went first and the crystal orb shook as it shone with an intense purple light with blue mist around it.

Seeing the reaction of the crystal orb, the elders seating behind on the podium together with Lu Zhenchuan rushed forward, even the lazy Crimson furnace peak elder stood up.

Seeing the reaction of those in charge of the disciple recruitment test, Zhan Shenwei looked at Xia Yunzi in front, what was her spirit root?.

The large scroll had only displayed high grade water spirit root, so where was the purple glow from.

.....